One up for Low(er) Carb Diet

[Daniel Labuz]

Just a quick story about an extraordinary occurrence in the last week.

My mother had brain surgery (a tumor near the brain stem) in '85 (before I was born), and survived of course. Since the tumor was in a precarious place and the technology at the time wasn't as it was today they had to leave some of the tumor there. Well over the last 22 years or so, she had to go in once a year to get it checked out to see if it has grown or moved and such.

She skipped the last 2 years appointments, and got checked out this last Thursday to find out the tumor has disappeared completely. The doctors were stunned, and of course she was too.

Me being quite happy, wondered why such a thing happened after 20 years? I thought to myself, she has been eating a lot healthier over the past 1-2 years, especially lowering carb/sugar/grain intake (as well as regular exercise), and then it hit me. I'm pretty sure I read an article on Eades M.D. blog about cancer needing glucose to survive or something, not exactly sure on the details. But this could've been the case I believe. Of course this is all speculation, but the pieces fit together quite nicely I would say.

Just wanted to say that, as I thought it being quite astounding.

Oh yeah here was the blog article I was talking about: http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/k...are-addictive/

[Steven Low]

The energy that sustains cancer cells is derived preferentially from glycolysis. This metabolic change, the Warburg effect, was one of the first alterations in cancer cells recognized as conferring a survival advantage. Here, we show that p53, one of the most frequently mutated genes in cancers, modulates the balance between the utilization of respiratory and glycolytic pathways. We identify Synthesis of Cytochrome c Oxidase 2 (SCO2) as the downstream mediator of this effect in mice and human cancer cell lines. SCO2 is critical for regulating the cytochrome c oxidase (COX) complex, the major site of oxygen utilization in the eukaryotic cell. Disruption of the SCO2 gene in human cancer cells with wild-type p53 recapitulated the metabolic switch toward glycolysis that is exhibited by p53-deficient cells. That SCO2 couples p53 to mitochondrial respiration provides a possible explanation for the Warburg effect and offers new clues as to how p53 might affect aging and metabolism.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16728594

Basically.. p53 mutation is seen in approximately 50% of cancers. I think a couple of the other apoptosis pathways also run through the mitochondria. In any case...

So limiting carbs which cancer cells will take up rapidly to fuel their growth will slow them down considerably. Possibly allowing NK cells to gobble up the cancer or forcing mitochondria back online and function possible promoting apoptosis of the cancerous cells.


If you know someone that has cancer go low carb.. I don't know about ketogenic though. Garrett (or someone) you have any info on if that helps even more?